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Today, scientists, beekeepers, and the general public share a widespread concern over the global decrease in honey bee populations and the resulting reduction in plant pollination. Clearly, there is a need for more pollinators. Orchard mason bees are an excellent additional source for plant pollination. You can both increase the pollinator population in your area and discover a new hobby. This pollen-gathering and egg-laying work is done during the early spring months — when spring flowers, bushes, and fruit trees are in bloom.
In the US, this typically occurs between February and May, depending on where you live. A mason bee will fill as many nesting tunnels as she can during her roughly 4-week life span — pollinating flowers profusely as she forages for food to supply her nest.
Then she dies. Inside the nesting chambers, eggs begin their transformation to adult bees. They hatch into larvae and consume the pollen-nectar masses.
After a rest period, the larva spins a cocoon, and by about September, a fully-formed adult bee lies inside each chamber if you purchase or make a special observation tray, you can actually watch this process happen. The adult bee now waits through the winter months until the spring air temperature rises to a consistent degree range, at which point it emerges from the tunnel to mate and repeat the egg-laying, pollen-gathering cycle all over again.
During the early spring months, you can try attracting mason bees by providing nesting tunnels, plenty of bee food, and a mud source. Mason bee houses can be bought or made from wood, thick paper straws, or hollow reeds. My father started his mason bees years ago by making a few wooden nest blocks in one afternoon.
Wood nest blocks are simple to make, but can lead to pest and parasite problems if not used properly. Photo by Judy Beaudette. Innocently, he drilled his holes 4 inches deep — not an ideal depth. Six-inch holes are better.
Female eggs are deposited in the back of the tunnel tucked away from rummaging woodpecker beaks or other predators and males in the front. Since mason bees lay more male eggs than females, a 6-inch tunnel produces more female bees, which in turn increases the potential for a bigger bee population the following year.
According to Mace Vaughan, the Pollinator Program Director at the Xerces Society a nonprofit dedicated to protecting invertebrates and their habitat the rustic hole nesting box is fine, with a critical caveat.
He cautions that in order to keep your bee population safe from debilitating disease and parasite problems, you must retire the wooden nest blocks after a couple years, or use an emergence box, which allows you to clean your block without harming developing larvae.
Emergence boxes — along with other DIY nest construction ideas, maintenance, and native bee facts — are explained in the must-read fact sheet Tunnel Nests for Native Bees , distributed by the Xerces Society. See Additional Resources at the end of this article for a link to this free publication. If making mason bee nest boxes is not your thing, you can purchase a wide variety of types at gardening centers or online through companies like Crown Bees, located in Washington State.
They build mud caves of sorts in small holes. They spend most of their lifespan in these mud rooms and emerge from their cocoons as fully mature bees.
The male adult lifespan is about two weeks, while the females live six weeks after emerging from their cocoons. After they mate with the males, they begin to build mud chambers for their eggs, filling them with pollen and nectar to sustain the egg through its larval and pupating stages.
If all goes well, they should have a full lifespan of days. But their chambers can be invaded by pests like mites or parasitic wasps. You can keep your bee colony healthy by using nesting materials that are easy to open and easy to clean, like wood trays or replaceable cardboard tubes. Non-heated winter storage location that stays dry, with temperatures around degrees Fahrenheit.
Here is the down and dirty how-to by month. Please find more resources to help you get started at the end of this post. Gather materials. If you buy cocoons now, keep them somewhere cool so they do no emerge before you are ready to place your bees outside. Assess your space to find the best location for your nesting box. Ideally, it will receive a few hours of morning sun with protection from afternoon rays.
It should be off the ground, best with an overhang to shield it from the elements. The overhang can be from the eave of a building or a inch lip on your box itself.
The box should not be free to swing in the wind. Placing it at eye level is a great way to spy on the gentle bees without straining your back. Check the weather and the flowers.
Mason bees emerge from their cocoons when daytime temperatures are in the mid-fifties. This usually occurs when the dreaded dandelions start blooming, or when cherry trees are barely starting to open. Mount your nesting box. Fill it with clean dry nesting tubes or trays. If you are in your second year, you will need double, or even triple a number of nesting boxes and tubes to keep up with your growing population.
Dig a hole close to the nesting box as a source of damp clayey mud. One good, steep shovelful will do steep is important, the bees want to harvest mud from vertical walls. If your soil is very sandy, buy some clay to add. The mason bee jaws are too small to carry mud particles larger than clay.
Provide a birdbath or other source of clean water near the nesting box. If your cocoons are in a cardboard box, open one flap and tape the box to your bee house. If you have loose cocoons, place them in a tinted container clear makes them cook A prescription bottle with a hole drilled in the lid is quite adequate.
Or a piece of PVC pipe with a cap and a hole. Place this container right next to the bee house. You may release your bees in stages to space out pollination. However, this is best done once your colony numbers have grown to twenty or more. Make sure there are a few of the larger cocoons in each batch.
Those are the females. The males will emerge first, forage for food, and then await the ladies. The females usually come out of their chambers days after the males, mate, find food, and then seek out their future nesting sites.
Once they find a proper hole, they will start building mud chambers, filling with pollen, and laying eggs immediately.
Bees should be very active at this time, enjoy them! They wake each morning when the sun warms them up. You can watch them bumble around the entrance to their home before they fly off to do their tasks. The females will be back and forth to the nesting box, bringing mud to build the chambers, and pollen to store up for the egg she will lay in each tube. Each female lays around eggs, six per tube. Each egg gets its own mud chamber.
Once a tube is full, she will move on to a new nesting hole. Check your mud regularly. Do not let it dry out.
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